


The Side Effects of Dying

by HappyHazuki



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Death, Does that make sense?, Eren wrote this, Feel free to judge, Gen, I did some research, I wrote this high on emotions, I'm not Eren, I've got rage issues but like, It's like a letter, Other, RIP, brief mentions of Krista(Historia) and Ymir being lesbians, lmao not important, lots of sleeping, this is weird btw
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-24
Updated: 2017-07-24
Packaged: 2018-12-06 13:22:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,327
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11601513
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HappyHazuki/pseuds/HappyHazuki
Summary: There had never been anything wrong with Armin before. There hadn’t been anything wrong with him during, but there was something wrong in the end. I watched it happen. I watched him die. I don’t have much else to say beforehand, but I was told to write this. So here we go: this is the story of how Armin Arlert died.





	The Side Effects of Dying

**Author's Note:**

> This is a weird story, so I apologize in advance.   
> I hope you enjoy, thank you for reading^^  
> I also haven't edited this because I'm lazy so I am so terribly sorry if I did something stupid.

There had never been anything wrong with Armin before. There hadn’t been anything wrong with him during, but there was something wrong in the end. I watched it happen. I watched him die. I don’t have much else to say beforehand, but I was told to write this. So here we go: this is the story of how Armin Arlert died.

Really, we all just thought we were normal teenagers in high school with no big future or anything. Mikasa, my sister; Armin, my best friend; Jean, an asshole; Reiner and Bert, almost brothers to me; Marco, the peacekeeper; Connie and Sasha, the idiots; Annie, the quiet and reserved one; and finally Ymir and Krista- the lesbians. Who was I? Well, my name is Eren, and this was my friend group. We didn’t all get along and we didn’t always stay together, but we were a group. We knew that life wasn’t going to be like a musical or a movie, we were just another bunch of kids in the mass of our peers.   
Armin was normal. He would go through stages where he seemed depressed, but he wasn’t anything special. He was very intelligent, whilst he lacked physical strength. Easily pushed around and bullied, he and I often got into fights. He had never been hurt so much that is impaired his body, and he sure didn’t have any health conditions. His parents died when he was very young, but he lived a good life with his grandfather.   
We all appreciated him, but he wasn’t usually the center of attention. I won’t lie, sometimes we ignored him. But then things started changing… and it all went downhill from there. 

 

[The First Stage]

One week, we noticed some changes in Armin. It started out as just a lack of energy. He was tired so often, once he even fell asleep in class. I had been waiting for him after class, it was the period before lunch.   
“Did she chew you out?” I laughed a little at his eyeroll. “Maybe you should get more sleep.”   
He looked a little confused, “That’s what I don’t understand. I haven’t stayed up late and I don’t have any trouble falling asleep. I sleep like a rock as usual.”   
“Armin, that’s what I say when I pull an all-nighter. Stop reading at night.” And with another laugh, I brushed it off.

Over the next few days, things got worse. Armin fell asleep in every class and he had no energy at all. It scared everyone, really. It was just weird. Then he stopped eating. He claimed to never be hungry, feel hungry, or even want food. He slept at lunch instead. Every day during gym, Mikasa said that he had fainted. Because of this, we obviously told him to go see a professional or something.   
“Do you have any stress or something? Are things tense at home?” She asked one day.  
He shook his head, “Things are fine. Things are actually pretty great. I recently got a new bookshelf, which...was..pretty..coool….” Armin’s eyes fluttered shut and his head hung down. Mikasa took his by the shoulder and shook him awake.   
“Hey, hey, stay with me, okay? You need to see a doctor or something. Does your grandfather know?”   
He nodded this time, “He’s worried, maybe I’ll call him and ask to go home early.. I don’t really feel well right now…” Lazily, he pulled out his phone and went to the contact, pressing the call button.   
Mikasa and I moved away a little, to give him privacy.   
“Do you think he’s okay? This isn’t like other times…” she sighed.  
Honestly I wish I had said something else, I had known something weird was going on but I didn’t even try to help.   
“I think he’s just stressed,” I said, “that’s common. Maybe if he just finds way to cope with stress, then he should be fine.”   
What a stupid opinion, right? Just some sleep and everything would be okay. What bulllshit. He wouldn’t be fine. Just two weeks after the loss of appetite and energy, he got scarier. Then came the intensity.

 

[The Second Stage]

The first strike came in our class together before lunch. It was pretty normal. Armin looked as though he were to doze off any second now, I was ready to wake him up as usual. But that didn’t happen. We were in the middle of a lecture about Edgar Allen Poe’s work. Nobody besides the teacher was talking, so it was rather terrifying and shocking to hear a loud yelp from the quietest person in the class. With wide eyes, I watched as Armin fell from his seat and looked like he was backing up from someone.   
“Stop!” He shouted. “Stop it!”   
He backed up, on his backside, hitting my desk. My pencil case fell, showering him in pens and pencils. Some people were laughing, some were trying not to laugh. I got down and crouched next to him, placing my hand on his shoulder. My touch made him recoil and back away from me too.   
“Please! Stop! Don’t hurt me!”   
“Armin!” Now I grabbed him by the collar bones and tried shaking sense into him. “Armin, stop! There’s nobody hurting you!”   
His wild eyes settled, the poor guy was panting and honestly did look a little crazy. When I saw the teacher staring at us in disdain, I froze.   
“Mr. Arlert, Mr. Jaeger, please leave my classroom again. I’ve about had it with your disruptions to this class.”   
With embarrassment, we obligingly left. 

Similar outbursts happened over the course of the week. Sometimes they were calm and just… weird. One day, five of us were in the library during a seminar class. Reiner, Bert, and Annie joined Armin and I as we looked around for references to chose.   
“Hey, Annie,” He asked once, putting away a book on the Byzantine Empire.   
She looked over at him.   
“Could you grab my suitcase, I need to get ready to go.” The serious tone was what was really strange.   
Annie gave him a puzzled look, raising an eyebrow. “What suitcase?”   
“Hmm?” He blinked a few times, “Did you say something?”   
The other four of us exchanged looks. Yes, something was weird.   
This event happened several times, several times a day. Armin would ask somebody to grab something so he could finish packing, or ask for help with his suitcase. Then when somebody gave him the confused response, he would snap out of it and say that he blacked out for a second, thinking they addressed him or asked him something. The outburst and the odd travel-related questions weren’t the worst of it. The worst happened one Friday afternoon when we were all walking over to the nearest fast-food joint. I was arguing with Jean over trivial matters, when Armin’s backpack fell. Some of us paused immediately, but I kept walking until I noticed that he stopped.  
“Hey, Armin, you al-”   
“They’re here.” he whispered. Being next to him, I could see that tears were pouring down his cheeks. “Mom and Dad.”   
Oh no.   
I knew it was another one, but I didn’t stop or grab him. He walked forward, staring in the same direction, breaking into a sprint. I couldn’t move, I don’t know why. I could just watch him, frozen, as he left.   
Armin never talked about his parents. We figured that he had been too young to remember when they died. Then again, we had assumed that he was young too. We just knew that they were dead. Something that was unspoken about. But this…  
I watched as Reiner rushed ahead, catching up with him.   
“Mom! Dad!” Armin yelled, crying, as he ran towards… nothing. There was no one.   
Reiner must have seen it coming, because as soon as the smaller boy tripped, he caught him from behind. The rest of us hurried over, seeing armin sobbing.   
“Stop! Please! They’re right there! Please! Reiner! Stop!”   
“Armin!” He yelled back, “Snap out if it. They aren’t there!”   
This went on for a little bit before Armin calmed down, unable to cry anymore tears. Sasha was trying to comfort him, but nothing really worked.   
Armin decided to walk home afterwards, not wanting to join us.   
That’s when he saw the doctor. 

 

There was nothing wrong with him. The doctor had done countless mental and physical tests, but nothing was retrieved. He was in perfect health. They couldn’t find a cause to the fatigue and outbursts, so they suggested sleep. Like the rest of us. Because apparently in this world, sleep can save you from anything.   
But it was confirmed: nothing was wrong with Armin. 

 

[The Third Stage]

The third stage wasn’t as scary. The outbursts ceased, but the lack of appetite and energy stayed. Armin had gotten very thin and frail, worrying us. We tried to make him eat, but he wouldn’t. It was useless. The new one was more peculiar than anything.   
Armin’s breathing got weird. It sounded like he had something in his throat and he coughed a lot. It wasn’t as worrisome, but the doctor couldn’t find anything wrong with his respiratory system. It was unexplainable.   
According to Mikasa, gym had gotten worse. He still fainted, but now was having something similar to asthma attacks. But according to tests, he did not have asthma. It was all unexplainable. Everything. But then we thought everything was alright. We thought it was over with the next week. 

 

[The Fourth Stage]

Armin had been normal again. It was so weird. He paid attention in class, participated, took notes. He ate lunch, breathed properly, and had no more outbursts. It made no sense, but we loved it. We did what we normally did again. It was awesome.   
“You sure you feel better?” Marco asked one day as Armin and I shared a school lunch like we usually did.   
“Yeah! I feel great! I’m not tired anymore!” He beamed, taking a bite of the bread on our tray.  
Marco didn’t look so sure, “It’s just that… you were acting so different. It didn’t make any sense… and now you’re fine?”   
I sighed, “Jesus, let’s just be happy he’s okay now.”   
But that was it. The last week was the best week ever, until…

 

[The Fifth Stage]

Monday was the last. When I came to school, I was ready to see a happy Armin. A normal Armin. Instead… I got something else: an Armin with dead eyes. It was like he was stuck in a trance. Not only did he just go through his daily routines, he hardly blinked. It scared Krista so much that she couldn’t look at him. I couldn’t blame her, really. The usually bright blue had dulled, his expression completely bland. He didn’t move his face a muscle, but the rest of him functioned like he did when he was tired.   
The last class of the day was the final stage. The grand finale.   
Y’know, really, the sad thing is that it wasn’t dramatic.   
This was the history class I had with Armin, Mikasa, and Connie. Now we were going over a test that I already knew I failed. I felt someone staring at me when I was following along, so I looked up to see Armin gazing straight into my soul. I jumped a little, creeped out. I noticed his hand twitch a little before he turned back to staring straight ahead. I sighed and looked down at my paper, only a second passed before a loud noise made the teacher pause.   
Armin’s head had fallen forward on the desk, all of him was relaxed.   
“Mr. Arlert!” The teacher barked, a few giggles from people in the class followed. When he didn’t sit up, the teacher walked over. “Mr. Arlert, wake up. I’m sick and tired of you falling asleep in this class!”   
Still, no response.   
“Mr. Arlert?”   
Nothing.   
The teacher shook his arm, pulling back when he just rolled over on his side. His eyes weren’t closed; they were still dead. The laughing stopped when the teacher couldn’t wake him up.   
“One of you go get the nurse! Fast!” She exclaimed, trying to make him regain consciousness. I saw Connie sprinting out of the corner of my eyes, but once again I couldn’t move. I stared at Armin sitting there, a feeling of horror settling on me.   
Had he just…?   
No. No that wasn’t it, right? The doctors said nothing was wrong, right? He was just passed out, right? Wrong. To which of them? All.   
Ten minutes later, the nurse couldn’t find a pulse. An ambulance had been called, everyone was sent out of the classroom, but I still couldn’t move.   
“Eren, get up,” Mikasa whispered in my ear, pulling me away from my desk, “stop looking. It’s okay. He’ll be okay.” she was pretending. I could see the massive wave of panic and shock in her eyes. She couldn’t hide from me. 

I actually can’t remember what happened before the paramedics arrived and when he was announced to be dead. Everything was a blur. Actually, everything before was a blur too. The doctor’s said that he hadn’t been poisoned or drugged. His systems were clean. The only thing they could find sounded like something out of a fictional movie. Apparently, all of his organs had failed… at once.   
Crazy, right?   
Impossible, right?   
Well apparently not.   
Some of us were actually suspected of some kind of murder, and I was one of them brought in. I told them what I knew, but they told me to write it down and give it to them instead. Why? I’m not sure, but that’s what I’m doing now.   
I guess that I never experienced the “stages of death,” as they call it, firsthand. What I can say though, is that I witnessed it. There’s no answer as to why Armin Arlert died, but I can only tell you what happened. And this was the truth. 

-Eren Jaeger


End file.
